Improvement in fulling-mills



L Nirnn STATES IMPROVEMENT IN FU LLlNG-MILLS.

Specilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,10), dated November24, 1863.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I,'I`HOMAS J. MAYALI, ofRoxbury, in the county otl Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented oertain new and useful Improvements in Machines for FulingCloth; and I do hereby declare that the following description, taken inconnection with'the .accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to,forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein I have setforth the nature and principles of my improvements, by which myinvention may be distinguished from all othersof a similar class, together with such parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me byLetters Patent.

In fulling cloth by the ordinary machinery employed considerabledifficulty is usually experienced, arising mostly from the fact that thecloth is subjected to very hard straining, squeezing, and pounding, andfrom the knotting77 of the same, occasioned by the unequal tension inits different parts, to which it is necessarily exposed, and from othercauses. These and other difficulties in working fullin gmills render theoperation a tedious one, and one requiring much care, producing goodsthat are often unequally fulled.

The delay in time occasioned by the neces- -sity of overhauling as it istermed, the

cloth to take out the knots and allow it to pass freely through themachine is a very serious disadvantage.

In my experiments in fulling goods it has been demonstrated that theyneed to be subjected to both a rubbing and a squeezing process, but insuch a manner that no undue strain sh'all possibly take place upon anyportion 0f the cloth, but, on the contrary, that the tension shall bealways uniform, and moreover that the devices employed for producing therubbing and squeezing operations, shall be of such a nature, and soarranged, as to not only keep up the requisite tension, but also to beself-adjusting, elastic, and yielding, so as to prevent the possibilityof knotting.

In my new fulling-mill I employ, to produce the rubbing motion, two ormore longitudinally corrugated or fluted rubber or other elasticrollers, between which the cloth to be fulled is passed, after havingbeen fed through a trough filled with the proper cleansing liquid, andalso two or more elastic rollers with plain and continuous peripheries,which take the cloth and squeeze out the liquid with which it has beensaturated. These operations of saturating, rubbing, and squeezing, aresuccessively 'performed until the fulling is completed. From thisarrangement it will be seen that by the use of elastic corrugatedrollers the rubbing of the clothis accomplished in an entirely novelmanner, as the utes of these rollers take up and eft'ectually performthe necessary rubbing manipulations, and at the same time, from theirelastic nature, prevent the possibility of any obstruction to the freepassage of the cloth, whether from knotting or other causes.

In the accompanying drawings a fullingmill is represented, constructedin accordance with my improvements.

Figure l is a plan or top view of the same.

-Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Fig. 3 is a central vertical longitudinalsect-ion of the same.

a a a a in the drawings represent the sup porting frame-work of themachine.

b b is a trough filled with any proper fullingliquid.

c c are two rollers, formed of india-rubber, gutta-percha, or othersimilar elastic material, and having longitudinally uted or corrugatedperipheries, as shown in Figs. l and 3. These rollers are susceptible ofadjustment by means of movable journal-boxes and set-screws, so as toaccommodate different thicknesses of goods.

d d are two elastic rollers, also susceptible of adjustment, havingplain and continuous peripheries.

The cloth to be fulled is first passed through the liquid in the troughb b, thence between the iiuted rollers c c, and 4finally between therollers d d, when the two ends are joined together, so as to form anendless band, which is fed continuously through the troughb b, i

between the rollers c c, and lastly between the rollers d d. The rollersc c take up the cloth between their elastic corrugations, and draw thesame with a uniform 'and yet yieldingstrain so as to effectively performthe necessary consolidation of the cloth, technically called fullingwithout the danger of subjecting it to undue straining or the formationof knots during the process. The elastic rollers d d then squeeze outthe superuous liquid in the cloth, which is again saturated in thetrough b b, and then rubbed and squeezed, as before, until the fullingis completed.

Having thus described my improvements,-

Wliat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure to me by LettersPatent, is

In afullin g-mill, the combinationIof a trough for containing the properliquid, two or more Witnesses:

JOSEPH GAVETT, ALBERT W. BROWN.

